Rivers State Assembly Heads To Supreme Court Over Amaewhule-Led Lawmakers

The Rivers State House of Assembly has decided to appeal the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the jurisdiction of the Rivers State High Court to hear the matter on suit number PHC/1512/CS/2024, describing it as a miscarriage of justice.

Speaker Rt. Hon. Victor Oko-Jumbo announced that the Assembly has directed its legal team to proceed to the Supreme Court to challenge the ruling. He clarified that the Court of Appeal did not declare Martin Amaewhule and 24 others as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, nor did it declare that they did not defect from the PDP to the APC.

Oko-Jumbo emphasized that there can only be one House of Assembly in Rivers State, and Amaewhule and his team are no longer members, as declared earlier by Rt. Hon. Ehie Edison, which has not been vacated by any Court of competent jurisdiction.

The Assembly called on INEC to conduct a bye-election to fill the vacant seats and urged the public to ignore Amaewhule and his team’s claims of being members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

In a separate development, two bills – the Rivers State Transport Company Reform Bill 2024 and Rivers State Emergency Management Bill 2024 – passed the first reading at the State House of Assembly.